With the advent of solar panels, it has become necessary to provide electrical connectors to enable electrical connection of solar panels to conductor wires for the transmission of electrical energy generated by the solar panel by conversion of sunlight to electricity through the use of photovoltaic cells.
In one type of solar panel, a thin film of metal oxide is vacuum deposited along an active surface of a glass substrate for direct receipt of sunlight thereonto and divided into discrete spaced apart film regions by laser ablation of gaps therebetween to define cells. A positive bus circuit is defined along one side edge of the opposed surface to which positive ends of the array of photovoltaic cells are connected, and a negative bus circuit is defined along the opposed side edge to which the negative ends of the cells are connected. The buses may comprise silver frit overlaid with insulative film except at termini thereof exposed to be electrically interconnected for transmission of electrical energy from the panel. One such connector module is associated with the positive bus and another with the negative bus. It is desirable to provide an electrical connector at the termini of the buses that establishes an environmental seal around the termini for protection against environmental effects such as moisture and humidity.
In another type of solar panel having an array of photovoltaic cells fabricated of polycrystalline material electrically interconnected either in series to sum their voltages or in parallel to sum their currents as desired, one or more blocking diodes are mounted on a base member such as a circuit-bearing element, with cathodes and anodes of the diodes electrically connected to respective circuits of the circuit card. The blocking diodes are utilized in banks of such solar panels to permit transmission of electrical energy in only one direction outwardly of each solar panel and preventing energy from being transmitted into a panel from a bus when it is temporarily blocked from receipt of sunlight. It is desirable to provide an electrical connector mountable on or adjacent a solar panel terminating two or more circuits thereof extending from electrical components such as blocking diodes, that enables and facilitates the connection to those circuits of respective insulated conductor wires for transmission of electrical energy from the panel.
It is desirable to provide such an electrical connector that is easily mountable to a connection site subsequent to the mounting of the electrical components to the solar panel, and that sealingly houses the components and the eventual connections thereof to conductor wires.
Electrical connectors are known in the telecommunications industry which enables the connection of conductor wires from a main distribution cable to individual subscriber cables such as at residences and offices, housed within a protective enclosure or junction box located inside or outside a structure. One example of an assembly of a splice terminal block and self-sealing enclosure therefor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,219,302 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,388. Therein, a terminal block has a single-piece barrel-shaped terminal with connecting sections for both wires to be spliced, and the terminal is of the insulation piercing or displacement type which eliminates the need for stripping the insulation from the signal wire conductors. A dielectric housing includes an integrally molded center post within a tubular terminal-receiving housing section, both coextending from a common base section and defining an annular cavity, the housing section providing wire-receiving openings through side walls and into the cavity aligned with an aperture through the center post, enabling insertion of wire ends during splicing.
A barrel-shaped terminal and an associated lug-capped tubular actuator is then assembled to the housing, with the barrel terminal surrounding the center post within the cavity and having apertured insulation displacement contact sections which are initially aligned with the wire-receiving openings of the housing and center post, and the actuator also having profiled apertures therethrough extending partially around the circumference and also aligned with the wire-receiving openings of the housing, center post and terminal. The lug extends above the housing upon assembly to be accessible to tooling for rotation thereof to rotate the actuator and the terminal.
During splicing the wire ends of both wires are inserted into respective openings and through the apertured contact sections until abutting stop surfaces of the housing which then holds the wire ends at two spaced locations, both outside and within the terminal wall; the actuator is then rotated through an angular distance of about a quarter turn in turn rotating the terminal, and the constricted edges of a precisely profiled slot extending from each of the terminal's apertures penetrate the wire insulation of both wires simultaneously and engage the conductors therewithin, completing the splice.
The terminal blocks of U.S. Pat. No. 5,219,302 are modular in nature, comprising a pair defined in the same housing member for mounting within an enclosure adapted for a plurality of such modules. The two-terminal block housing is mountable in a selected orientation such that the wire-receiving openings of each of the terminal blocks are oriented facing a cable exit of the enclosure, or other common point from where the pairs of conductors originate as discrete wires from two cables.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/880,449 filed May 8, 1992 is disclosed a single module having two barrel-shaped terminals each with a pair of insulation displacement slots for termination by rotary actuation to respective conductors of two cables, for crossconnecting or splicing the tip and ring lines of a service line extending to a customer with a cable extending to the main distribution line. Each barrel terminal is in electrical engagement with a circuit element such as a wire length extending to a respective separate portion of the module for electrical connection to an active electrode of a respective protector unit within a respective housing section. The two protector units each include a ground electrode grounded to a common ground strap which includes a contact section exposed along the bottom of the module to be assuredly engaged with a ground strap along the floor of the enclosure upon mounting of the module therein, for grounding to a ground stud for external system grounding. The wire-receiving apertures of the two housing sections containing the terminals are preferably oriented to face a cable exit of the enclosure to facilitate receipt of the conductors for wire termination upon rotation actuation of the terminals by respective lug-capped actuators. An enclosure for protected terminal blocks or modules includes a ground strap extending from a ground stud to each terminal block mounting region, enabling the contact section of the module ground strap to engage its top surface upon mounting of the terminal block in position.